4/5

Lots of interesting threads in this book, the author does an excellent job peeling away what exists in the sources to tell a really compelling social, family and labor history of late 18th century Kentucky. The examinations of the breakdown of the traditional social order on the frontier, the impacts of the escalating conflict with the natives, and the general emergence of a frontier proletarian class are all really revealing about early America. There are some really interesting ideas about republicanism and home rule in the 3rd chapter examining the wide spread result of westerns in the 1780s and 90s. Particularly the bit about settlers seeking protection from the Spanish crown had a lot of similarities to the late loyalist migration into lower Canada in the same period. I think there is some interesting scholarship to be done examining the 1790s back country and its relationship to republicanism and democracy.